Welcome to the NAVBLUE Employee Spotlight Feature! We’ve created these stories with the goal of shining a spotlight on the pivotal role our employees play in the tech and aviation field, their journeys so far, and how NAVBLUE aims to create an innovative and inclusive workforce with their help.
Today we are sharing the story of Elena Portello , Sales Director in Toulouse, France.
Fun Fact
- She practiced the traditional “Shoa Oromo” head twisting dance in Addis (Ethiopia) during a dinner with a customer and got headache for 3 days
(Make a quick Google search and you’ll understand why)
Q&A
Thanks for joining us, Elena! Can you tell us, in brief, what a Sales Director is and what that role entails within NAVBLUE?
A Sales Director’s main duty is to meet sales targets. To do so, we work on building and cultivating relationships with our customers while partnering to better understand their business objectives and needs.
At NAVBLUE, we have a large variety of products and types of customers which makes the job very interesting and different every day, there is no routine!
We also work with all departments within Navblue and get full support from marketing, commercial operations, deal managers, product teams, finance, contract, etc. We also work very closely with our Airbus colleagues.
All these internal and external stakeholders make the job very exciting, and rich in encounters and knowledge.
You arrived at NAVBLUE 7 years ago… From Toulouse to Miami and back to Toulouse! What has your experience been like at NAVBLUE since you’ve joined?
I started working in NAVBLUE when the company was created in 2016. What a journey!
My experience, from marketing to sales, and from Toulouse to Miami has been very enriching.
I had the opportunity to see the company growing from a few dozens of employees to more than 500 today. I’m almost part of the furniture now!
I think we succeeded to still keep this agility that defines any small business and start up company. Obviously we also had to put in place new processes to face the growth and be able to answer the best to our customers’ requirements.
Tell us about one of the most memorable experiences you have had during your career at NAVBLUE
I think first of all is about people I met, at work but also during my visits to customers. I developed real friendships with many people from different cultures making this journey a fantastic experience.
Talking about cultures, the opportunity to travel to so many countries in the different regions was a privilege: Ethiopia, Rwanda, Ivory Coast, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Thailand, India, China….to name a few!
These encounters and travels truly makes this job a real gift.
Aeronautics is a male-dominated industry, as well as Sales is a male-dominated sector… What advice would you offer to other women and girls aspiring to pursue a similar career trajectory?
Just try, don’t be shy, don’t excuse yourself – I had a tendency to do so before – and explore what appeals to you. I see nothing in my current job that would fit more a man than a woman so jump on the next opportunity and believe in you!
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Interested in joining NAVBLUE?
